{"id":24834,"date":"2025-02-06T21:46:53","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T21:46:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/?p=24834"},"modified":"2025-03-07T22:07:30","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T22:07:30","slug":"cds-fields-large-fire-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2025\/cds-fields-large-fire-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Children\u2019s Disaster Services fields large response to Los Angeles fires"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>By Carolyn Neher and Michael Scalzi<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In January, Children&#8217;s Disaster Services (CDS) sent four volunteer teams to care for children in the Los Angeles area in response to the wildfires that engulfed the city and surrounding area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Three teams were partnered with the Red Cross for two weeks, serving in the shelters and resource assistance centers for the wildfire survivors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One team was made up of CDS volunteers living locally in California. California VOAD (Volunteer Organizations Assisting in Disaster) and Church World Service (CWS) asked CDS to serve for a week at a Wildfire Resource HUB in Pasadena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As of Feb. 5, 25 volunteers served 412 children. During the response, CDS associate director Carolyn Neher visited with each team, helping to coordinate the response. During the response, CDS volunteers gave their time supporting young children and their families recovering from the wildfires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The last team of CDS volunteers still serving in the L.A. area are scheduled to return home on Feb. 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two wildfires started on Jan. 7: the Palisades fire in the Santa Monica mountains of Los Angeles County and the Eaton fire in Altadena. The Palisades fire destroyed most of Pacific Palisades, Topanga, and Malibu cities. Over 200,000 people were forced to evacuate. The fires were driven by Santa Ana winds of hurricane strength\u201480 to 100 miles per hour\u2014killing 29 people and destroying or damaging 16,000 structures. The Palisades and Eaton fires were fully contained after 24 days on Jan. 31.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"584\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/02\/CDSFacebookPost-600px.gif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-24835\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>In a Facebook post, CDS thanked the teams of volunteers who have served following the Los Angeles fires.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>&#8212; Carolyn Neher is associate director of Children\u2019s Disaster Services. Michael Scalzi is program assistant for CDS. Find out more about CDS, which is part of Brethren Disaster Ministries, at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brethren.org\/cds\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"www.brethren.org\/cds\">www.brethren.org\/cds<\/a>. Give financial support at <a href=\"https:\/\/churchofthebrethren.givingfuel.com\/all-ministries?registrants.fund=%3EChildren%27s%20Disaster%20Services%5e\">https:\/\/churchofthebrethren.givingfuel.com\/all-ministries?registrants.fund=%3EChildren%27s%20Disaster%20Services%5e<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">#MissionAndMinistryBoard #StrategicPlan #RacialJustice #LoveOurNeighbors #Discipleship #NewTestamentGiving<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Find more Church of the Brethren news:<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__list wp-block-latest-posts\"><li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/six-awards-from-associated-church-press\/\">Messenger and Communications receive six awards from the Associated Church Press<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/conscientious-objection-event-for-adults\/\">Virtual event for adults will follow on conscientious objection sessions for young people<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/world-refugee-day-service\/\">Deportation Defense Response invites participation in World Refugee Day Ecumenical Service<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/brethren-bits-111\/\">Brethren bits<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/jeff-thomson-to-direct-bdm\/\">Jeff Thomson hired to direct Brethren Disaster Ministries<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In January, Children&#8217;s Disaster Services (CDS) sent four volunteer teams to care for children in the Los Angeles area in response to the wildfires that engulfed the city and surrounding area. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24835,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1703],"tags":[1252,456,1253,1758,457,2285,3180,2195,1708],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-24834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-of-the-brethren-newsline","tag-bdm","tag-brethren-disaster-ministries","tag-cds","tag-children","tag-childrens-disaster-services","tag-disaster-response","tag-los-angeles-fires","tag-service","tag-wildfires"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24834"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24837,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24834\/revisions\/24837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24834"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=24834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}